The present invention generally relates to speakers and more particularly to ceiling speakers.
As the service sector of the economy grows, more and more workers find themselves in offices rather than in manufacturing facilities. The need for flexible, reconfigurable space has resulted in open plan workspaces, large rooms with reduced height, moveable partitions and suspended ceiling systems. Workstation density is also increasing, with more workers occupying a given physical space. Additionally, speakerphones, conferencing technologies, and multimedia computers with large, sound reflecting screens and voice input tend to increase the noise level of the workplace.
In response to increased noise within the workplace, suspended ceilings having acoustical ceiling panels, have been developed to absorb and abate extraneous noise within a confined space. The modular design of such panels allows for ease of installation and ease in office space reconfiguration. Building planners often specify modular ceiling panels as a standard system within their designs. Ceiling panels can both enhance the work environment by providing acoustic sound absorption and attenuation, and by providing a pleasant monolithic visual appearance. Thus, there has been an increased emphasis on specifying ceiling systems with high acoustic absorption and pleasant visual appearance.
Loudspeakers often are used to provide sound in a workspace. Such sounds typically may include paging messages, music, and background masking which reduces the effect of unwanted noise from infrastructure systems such as ventilation systems, and mask speech noise allowing for greater speech privacy.
Building planners prefer to specify ceiling systems that are substantially monolithic in structure and design. Such ceiling systems provide a pleasant visual appearance to the person viewing the ceiling from below. Loudspeakers often are required in office spaces where ceilings are formed of ceiling panels. Preferably, the installation of loudspeaker systems within a suspended ceiling does not interrupt the desired monolithic design of the ceiling.
Unfortunately, current loudspeaker systems for installation in suspended ceilings are unable to provide a modular design that can integrate both functionally and visually into the ceiling system. For example, many speaker systems, when installed, protrude below the plane of the ceiling panels, thus interrupting the planar surface of the ceiling. Additionally, speaker systems can be installed by cutting out a portion of a panel and installing a speaker with a round perforated grill within the opening. Such a speaker grill clearly interrupts the monolithic appearance of the ceiling and is considered unsightly by some.
What is needed is a speaker assembly system that is visually compatible with a monolithic suspended ceiling tile installation.
The present invention provides a flat panel sound radiator assembly system that is substantially visually equivalent to the monolithic look of surrounding ceiling tiles in a suspended ceiling. The assembly is modular in design and provides an acoustic facing that is substantially visually indistinguishable from surrounding ceiling panels.
Briefly described, the flat panel sound radiator assembly comprises a frame and a radiating panel resting within the frame. The frame includes a bridge element fitted to the frame. The radiating panel has both a backing and facing side and an acoustic transducer mounted to the backing side of the radiating panel. An acoustic facing concealing the facing side of the radiating panel is applied, wherein the acoustic facing is substantially visually indistinguishable from surrounding ceiling panels. The flat panel sound radiator assembly further comprises part of a monolithic suspended ceiling structure, wherein the assembly is virtually visually indistinguishable from the surrounding ceiling tiles of the suspended ceiling.
A further embodiment of the present invention includes a ceiling system comprising a plurality of ceiling panels having an exposed surface and a flat panel sound radiator. The flat panel sound radiator comprises a support and an acoustical visually matched exposed layer. The exposed layer of the radiator is substantially visually indistinguishable from the exposed surfaces of the ceiling panels.
The flat panel sound radiator assembly and system conceals the modular speaker so that it appears substantially the same as the ceiling panels that surround it. In this way, the monolithic appearance of the ceiling is not interrupted.